German TV is on something of a roll at the moment, thanks to the likes of Deutschland 83 and Babylon Berlin. With Amazon also already having aired its first German-language original, You Are Wanted, it’s no surprise that Netflix would want to get in on the act, too; it’s also unsurprising that being Netflix, Dark is substantially better than Amazon’s efforts.
What is surprising is that whether deliberately or not, Dark is probably the most German TV show imaginable.
Set in the small rural town of Winden (none of the real ones) in 2019, it opens with the suicide of a respected and loved father, who leaves a letter that must not be opened until a few months after his death.
Not that this is the first tragedy to strike the town. A child has already gone missing that year and just a few days short of the date on the letter, a third child disappears and a mutilated body is soon found. Except it’s a child who disappeared in 1986 and it’s as if not a day has passed for him. What’s going on?
So far, so not especially German, for sure, but by the end of the first season, this Groundhog Day meets Back to the Future 2 meets Saw has gone through a gamut of German concerns and interests, from myth and the power of the woods and nature, through atomic energy and acid rain, to Nietzsche’s nihilism and Goethe’s fatalism, all with just a hint of 80s nostalgia (not Ostalgie, though). It also tries to address that perennial German-related time travel morality question: if you could travel back in time to kill Hitler when he was just a child, would you? And if you did, would it change anything or would Time somehow still conspire to find a way for history to continue on the same course?
Yes, Dark is indeed dark. So, are you going to like it? Well, that’s another matter. A full review of the entire first season after this lovely trailer – some minor spoilers ahoy.
TMINE’s about to take its traditional Christmas and New Year break. Normal business will resume on January 2nd with the Daily News et al.
But as usual, I’ll leave you with a specific question to keep you occupied in my absence: what were your favourite new shows of the year? Let everyone know your choices and the reasons below or on your own blog – or even on the shiny new TMINE Facebook page.
For the record, after the jump are my Top 14 shows from all over the world, in no particular order. Obviously, I’ve not watched every TV programme broadcast or acquired in the UK this year and I barely watched any live TV, so there are almost certainly some good shows that that I’ve left off the list – this is just the top “would recommend to a friend” shows of the ones I watched in 2017. Continue reading “Question of the year: what were your favourite new shows of 2017? Here’s my Top 14!”
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK
Christmas hasn’t stopped the acquisitions staff at various UK networks from rushing through some acquisitions, and the schedulers aren’t taking a break, either.
This week, 5Spike picked up History (US)’s inferior SEAL team drama Six, for broadcast in early 2018, while Channel 4 (and Walter) have picked up TV4 (Sweden)’s Rebecka Martinsson, which will air… some time.
Meanwhile, most of last week’s new acquisitions now have airdates, as do a few other shows that had already been acquired:
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) is a supervisor in a hypermarket and Ben Feldman (A to Z) is the new employee with airs and graces who finds her attractive but makes an immediate bad impression on her, which leaves her with little patience for him. The result is that he keeps making costly mistakes, such as marking everything as costing $0.25 rather than 25% less, resulting in Black Friday levels of customer in-fighting.
Without jokes, a comedy show is for naught, and while frequently it’s smart and comes perilously close to being funny and sometimes even witty, nothing ever really lands home, bar a joke about a cubic zirconium knock-off. Still, it’s better than Sky’s Trollied.
An everyday tale of an inbred family of Southeners, sticking by their own kind, obeying a stern family figure, living by their own rules, drinking moonshine, racing all over the place, breaking whatever laws they want while the cops try and fail to catch them. About as smart a drama as you can make about a family of 200 or so cousins, only one of whose members can read.
A look at the ‘underground railroad’ that helped slaves in the US to escape to freedom, usually in British North America (aka Canada). On the one hand, the show takes great pains to be as realistic as possible. On the other, it also takes great pains to be as ‘with it’ as possible, with flashy camerawork, a modern soundtrack, time jumps, slow motion, and dialogue that’s often no more than a decade old. I lasted an episode.
Mash up of of Murdoch Mysteries and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries that sees Lauren Lee Smith (CSI, Good Dog, This Life, The Listener) playing the only female private detective working in 1920s Toronto. Jaunty fun, with the likes of Ernest Hemingway dropping by for a bit of flirtation, interspersed with female-empowering historicity, but let down by the singularly wet Lee Smith.
Seven Seconds (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, February 23, 2018
In a society fraught with racial tension, sensational headlines, and an audience who would rather be entertained than informed, seven seconds can mean life or death. The new Netflix original series Seven Seconds gives viewers a glimpse into the human stories behind the headlines.
In an instant, life is forever changed for Brenton Butler and his family. After a white cop accidentally hits and critically injures a black teenager, a northeastern city explodes with racial tensions, an attempted cover up and its aftermath, and the trial of the century. From creator and executive producer, Veena Sud (The Killing) comes Seven Seconds – a thrilling new anthology crime drama that explores the human stories behind the headlines.
The series stars two-time Emmy winner Regina King (American Crime) alongside breakout British actress Clare-Hope Ashitey (Doctor Foster), Russell Hornsby (Fences), Beau Knapp (Sand Castle), Michael Mosely (Ozark), David Lyons (Safe Haven), Raul Castillo (Special Correspondents), and Zackary Momoh (A United Kingdom).
